You Can’t Bio-Hack Your Way to Optimal Wellness

I haven’t missed a workout in over 12 years. One of the most common questions people ask me is how I sustain that momentum.

Many have asked me what programming splits I use to sustain daily activity without crashing, what supplements I take, how I optimize my sleep schedule, how much protein I eat each day, what I do to recover.

There are plenty of apps and programs that can guide you through the minutae of “bio-hacking.”

Apps can help you assess your “readiness” to train or that can tell you how intensely you should train. They pull from available quantifiable data like heart rate variability and sleep time to assess your condition.

It can be helpful to track those numbers as a way to see patterns and correlations between objective metrics and subjective experience.

That said, the numbers should not dictate your actions, because numbers don’t tell the whole story.

My approach to my personal biometrics is similar to how I approach data in my businesses.

The Real Estate Metaphor

For example, when I see a home that’s been lingering on the market, the data alone won’t tell me why it’s not selling.

Factors like babies who need to stay on nap schedules or difficult tenants who refuse to cooperate can often complicate access, leaving the best homes at a disadvantage.

To create a winning strategy for selling the home, I need to understand the full dynamic. My initial evaluation is as much qualitative as it is quantitative. I seek to understand the patterns, and the specific needs of the homeowner.

I apply this principle to my fitness as well.

The Limits of Apps and Data

I recently downloaded a new app that takes my data from my Apple Watch and aims to make it actionable by showing me my “recovery percentage” and my “battery charge.” If I wear my watch to sleep, it evaluates my sleep. It uses these metrics to tell me how hard I should train.

For example, after a particularly intense week, the app told me to take a recovery day and do something low impact and low intensity.

But the app doesn’t know that I need a certain amount of intensity in my morning workout to trigger the dopamine I need for focus and alleviate joint pain.

On another day, when the app told me I was “fully recovered” and ready to train hard, my body just wasn’t feeling up for it.

I don’t need an app to tell me if I got good quality sleep, or if I’m tired or hungry. Attuning to my body can give me all the information I need.

There’s a growing obsession with data in the wellness and fitness industries. But the relentless drive toward “optimization” misses the point:

True wellness and fitness is about learning how to engage in a constructive dialogue with your own body.

At best, the numbers can support what you already intuitively know. They should never drive the decisions.